TV personality Taylor Armstrong (R) and husband Russell Armstrong attend the OK! Magazine and BritWeek Oscars party at The London West Hollywood in West Hollywood, California.Getty Images

Reality TV doesn’t get any more real than this.

Russell Armstrong, 47, the condescending and callous hubby of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star, Taylor Armstrong, 40, was found dead Monday of an apparent suicide.

An unidentified friend found Armstrong hanging by his neck in the bedroom of a ritzy Los Angeles home on Mullholland Drive, where the reality show star had been crashing after his wife slapped him with divorce papers a month ago and claimed he had abused her.

“I had spoken to him a few weeks before they announced [the divorce] and he seemed really devastated and sad about it,” said Armstrong’s longtime pal, Beverly Hills jeweler, Alan Friedman. “But I just didn’t see any indication he was suicidal, I didn’t read anything else into other than he was heartbroken.”

No suicide note was found, cops said, but Armstrong was suffering from severe financial woes, a nasty $1.5 million lawsuit for allegedly scamming investors via his venture capitalist business and a deep depression about his crumbling marriage, according to a production source.

A source close to Russell and Taylor say he was going through “crazy inner turmoil and with the divorce, everything was coming at him at the same time.”

Armstrong was pronounced dead at 8:16 p.m., by paramedics who responded to a 911 call, Ed Winter, assistant chief coroner for Los Angeles County said.

“It’s a reported suicide, but the final cause of death remains under investigation,” Winter said.

But even before Armstrong’s body was cold, his estranged and extended family began squabbling over why he died.

His ex-wife, Barbara Frederickson, the mother of his 14-year-old son Aiden, pointed the finger squarely at Taylor, his second wife, for the death.

“I don’t care for her at all. I think she’s the reason for this,” Frederickson, told RadarOnline.com. “I don’t think it was the show, I think she [Taylor] drove him into financial stress and it just ruined him.”

On the Bravo cable channel reality show, viewers are taken into the lives of materialistic, middle-aged millionaire moms living in Beverly Hills, including “Fraiser” star Kelsey Grammer’s ex, Camille.

Armstrong became known to fans of the show for his sullen, sour attitude towards his TV-star wife — fighting and belittling her on camera, abandoning her at parties and undermining her at every opportunity — especially in front of their 5-year-old daughter, Kennedy.

“I’m just baffled by this whole thing,” said Friedman. “I saw stuff on TV that I never saw in real life, I never saw anything from him that could be portrayed as negative behavior.”

The Armstrong’s marital problems were a focal point on the first season of the show, and their recent marriage counseling sessions were supposed to be featured on the upcoming season.

Yesterday Bravo execs would not discuss how the network will handle the footage in light of Russell’s death.

In one of his infamous snit fits, Taylor pleaded with Armstrong not buy their daughter a dog because she wasn’t old enough to take care of it. Russell bought the pup anyway, bragging that he called the shots at home and if he wanted to buy a dog, he would buy a dog — even if the little girl turned out to be allergic to the pooch.

Armstrong himself, recently admitted he was a jerk on TV.

“I was a workaholic a—hole husband,” he told the investors Web site, FinAlternative last June. “By the end of the season, I’m sitting there watching it on TV thinking, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’”